We Have This Moment Today
When you think of the word “moment,” what comes to mind? I’m having a senior moment? I will be there in a moment, or I will see you in a moment. We might say “I am living in the moment.” Songs like “One Moment In Time,” by Whitney Houston, or “This Magic Moment.” We might even think of an awkward moment, like when it is very quiet in church and your stomach decides to sound like a dying whale! Or that awkward moment when you are sitting at a red light, accidentally beep your horn, and everyone around you thinks you’re a jerk! Or like this story of an 8 year old….An 8 year old little girl went to her dad, who was working in the yard, and asked him “Daddy, what is sex?”
The father was surprised that she would ask such a question, but decided that if she was old enough to ask the question, then she was old enough to get a straight, yet age-appropriate answer! He proceeded to tell her about the “birds and bees.” When he finished his talk, the little girl was looking at him with her mouth hanging open. The father asked her why she asked the question. She replied “Mom told me to tell you that dinner would be ready in just a few secs.” AWKWARD!!! Well, what I want to focus on is what I think of as “God’s gift” moments.
A God’s gift moment is like a snapshot, or a little more, when we are “in the now.” We are not worried about what is going to happen tomorrow, the “what might’s” and “what if’s,” nor are we thinking about the “should have’s” or “if only’s” of the past. We are in the now. I remember a “God’s gift” moment. It happened a few years back when the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra started doing Beatle Madness at the Capitol Arts Theater (and they are great at all they do!). Kathy and I were there with a group of friends. It was one of those magical nights! We had all gone out to dinner together, and were enjoying an incredible concert. My God’s gift moment came when I turned and looked over at my wife, Kathy. At that moment, everything stopped. I can still see her in the sundress she was wearing, and the one strand of curls that came over her right eye. She turned and looked back at me and smiled, and at that God’s gift moment, I remember thinking how God had blessed me with such a beautiful, loving wife. I wanted to stay in that moment, not wanting that magical moment to end! I guess in a way, it hasn’t. It is still with me. I have been blessed with numerous other “God’s gift” moments throughout the years, and I know that if I sat down with you, you would be able to share with me some God’s gift moments He has given you!
Cesare Parese once wrote “We do not remember days, we remember moments.” If that is the case, and I believe it is, we have to ask what kind of moments will those we love remember about us and our moments with them? I do believe that we are to make the most of the opportunities given us, not opportunities hoped for. In fact, we get so busy looking for what is just ahead that we miss out on the here and now! Emily Dickinson wrote “Forever is composed of nows.” All this week’s article is about is being mindful of moments given to us, of this very moment. What we do with it is up to us. It will either be a moment that will, when we recall it, cause us to smile or it will cause a grimace. I will close with the chorus of the Gaither Vocal Band song “We Have This Moment Today:”
We have this moment to hold in our hands
and to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand;
Yesterday's gone and tomorrow may never come,
But we have this moment today.